The SENTINEL missions support atmospheric monitoring by providing timely, continuous and independent data on the atmosphere, and provide data to support federal, national and local studies and activities, and help in addressing a variety of policy areas.

SENTINEL-3

OLCI will support investigations into atmospheric composition (mainly aerosols and water vapour) which is a fundamental parameter for climate studies, and will also contribute to the measurements of the downwelling solar radiation (long-wave and short-wave) at the Earth’s surface and Top Of Atmosphere, which are critical to the estimation of the global Surface Radiation Budget (SRB).

The MWR instrument will measure the atmospheric water content in liquid and vapour phases. This information will be used to enable the SENTINEL-3 mission to meet the required altimetry accuracy requirements for the measurements acquired by the SRAL instrument on the same platform.

The multi-angle, multi-wavelength viewing geometry of the SLSTR instrument will support the characterisation and investigation of cloud properties through the development of operational cloud products.

04 September 2017

The Sentinel-5P satellite has arrived in Plesetsk in northern Russia to be prepared for liftoff on 13 October. Built to deliver global maps of air pollutants every day and in more detail than ever before, this latest Copernicus mission will set a new standard for monitoring air quality.

Greenhouse gases help to keep our planet warm, but with too much the planet's temperature would increase, and by contrast the temperature would plummet without these gases. Satellites can help to measure the accumulations of gas in the atmosphere and determine future trends.

In terms of atmospheric monitoring, highly reactive gases of ones which when exposed to sufficient quantities of heat and light chemically react and absorb or deplete the surrounding levels of ozone in the atmosphere. It is thus important to observe the levels of these potential threatening gases.

Satellites can help to monitor the potential harmful aerosol levels in the atmosphere and distinguish between natural and human-made aerosols. This is an important tool in efforts to prevent further atmospheric pollution.